Love’s Labour’s Lost. Directed by Barry Avrich. Starring Mike Shara, Ruby Joy and Juan Chioran.
The tongue-twisting wordplay in William Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost has seen countless students reaching for copies of Coles Notes in frustration.
Short of having a passionate English teacher or devoted live-theatre buffs for parents, young readers were left to contemplate the intricate puns and themes of youthful folly, race, and linguistic seduction on their own. No longer.
Stratford Festival’s big-screen production of Love’s Labour’s Lost comes to local Cineplex theatres April 29, making the language intimate and accessible to viewers young and old. Based on the stage production by Tony- and Olivier-award-winning John Caird, and produced and directed by Montreal native/Hollywood bigwig Barry Avrich (if you haven’t read his tell-all book Moguls, Monsters and Madmen: An Uncensored Life in Show Business, pick it up), the film is a lush and witty adaptation of the Bard’s early comedy, not to mention a colour-blind one.
There are laughs from the outset, as King Ferdinand of Navarre (Sanjay Talwar) asks his three companions Berowne, Longaville and Dumaine to commit to three years of academic rigour complete with fasting, little sleep and no women within a mile of the gates. “Our court shall be the wonder of the world,” predicts the king. Only wily Berowne (Mike Shara) balks: “these are barren tasks, too hard to keep.” Through some fancy wordsmithing the notoriously playful
Berowne (“not a word with him but a jest”) manages to erase some of the hardships from his contract. Plus, Berowne reminds the King, the Princess of France is due to be received at any moment.
The Princess (Ruby Joy) arrives with her ladies-in-waiting (among them UBC alumnae Sarah Afful playing Rosaline) but must remain outside the walls in order for the king to preserve his oath. Despite the crude accommodations, romances blossom among the courtiers.
Also railing against the no-women edict is Don Adriano de Armado, “a Spanish braggart” (Stratford stalwart Juan Chioran), who has fallen hopelessly in love with local wench Jaquenetta and tries to woo her in his trademark over-the-top vernacular.
It’s not a difficult play in terms of plot: the men don’t take things as seriously as they ought, the women have some fun at the men’s expense and there are Bard trademarks, such as a disguise scene and a play-within-a-play. In many ways LLL is a typical coming-of-age tale, as the folly of young love grows to sage pledges of devotion after reality sets in.
It’s the duplicity of the language that’s tricky for the uninitiated, but Avrich employs 10 cameras to bring viewers right into the fray, and seemingly on stage, offering access to the actors that even the most intimate theatres don’t allow. It’s a double-edged sword for theatre actors accustomed to employing big movements and reactions for a live audience, which occasionally overwhelm the HD closeups here.
There’s no weak link in a cast delivering laugh-out-loud moments on cue, though Tom Rooney is a comic standout and Shara a clear audience favourite.
One can’t help but think of the racist undertones in the Bard’s language, especially in a play dominated by language contrasting “fair” and “dark” and in a production featuring three black actresses as handmaidens. Rosaline, for example, is said to be “born to make black fair” by her lover Berowne. The language may be anachronistic, but the casting on John Caird’s part is refreshingly modern. It’s not like high school, I promise: rush out and see it.
Love’s Labour’s Lost plays at Park & Tilford Cinemas in North Vancouver and other screens in the Lower Mainland April 29. Visit stratfordfestival.ca/LLLHD for a full list of cinema locations.
